On-Board Diagnostic systems are in most cars and light commercial vehicles on the road today. During the '70s and early 1980's manufacturers started using electronic means to control engine functions and diagnose engine problems. Primary purpose was to meet EPA emission standards (USA). To meet these standards, manufacturers turned to electronically controlled fuel feed and ignition systems. Sensors measured engine performance and adjusted the systems to provide minimum pollution. These sensors were also accessed to provide early diagnostic assistance.

OBD-II, a new standard introduced in the mid-'90s, provides almost complete engine control and also monitors parts of the chassis, body and accessory devices, as well as the diagnostic control network of the car. OBD-II is an expanded set of standards and practices developed by SAE and adopted by the EPA and CARB (California Air Resources Board) for implementation by January 1, 1996.

Strangely and unusually Europe was slower on the implementation of OBD2.  Europe OBD (also known as EOBD) became mandatory for all new European car designs in 2000, existing cars in 2001 and diesels 2004 (however most manufacturers implemented it significantly earlier – as many cars were also sold in the US).

You may help us improve Application by sending OBD-II parameters of your car. Just leave your car data at the Setting page of the App and send them out to us at General information menu.

Your questions and feedback are also welcome, fill out form below.

Thank you!

There are five basic OBD-II protocols in use - CAN, ISO 9141, ISO 14230 (also KWP2000), PWM è VPW, each with minor variations on the communication pattern between the on-board diagnostic computer and the scanner console or tool. You may also tell which protocol is used on a specific automobile by examining the connector socket carefully. If the dash connector has a pin in the #7 position and no pin at #2 or #10, then the car has the ISO 9141 protocol. If no pin is present in the #7 position, the car uses an SAE protocol. If there are pins in positions #7 and #2 and/or #10, the car may use the ISO protocol.

The differences between the protocols are pure details, for example, data rate. Online you can find so-called "table applicability" - lists of relevant brands and models of cars and OBD-II-protocols they support. But these lists do not give complete and accurate information - not always cars presented in the list will support OBD-II. It is especially difficult to judge the variety of functions to support specific protocols. The fact is that it all depends on the model, year and the market, which is the car focused on.

To learn whether your car supports OBD-II standard, see following conditions:

1. OBD-II standard is supported by the vehicles:

• U.S. since 1996
• European since 2003 (diesel since 2004)
• Japanize since 2005

Unfortunately, other cars are not complied with the OBD-II standard. But, you may see some hints that may help to identify your car.

2. DLC connector (Diagnostic Link Connector) - 16 pin-out DLC of a trapezoidal shape. ! Some cars have DLC connector, but they do not support OBD-II standard. DLC connector may be located in one of the 8 places and can be open or closed by some cover with a sign "OBD-II", "Diagnose" etc.

3. Technical documentation to your car. OBD-II compliance may be mentioned at the technical documentation of your vehicle (but not in the general direction to the car brand / model!).

4. You can also search all the identification plates on the car - there may be signs "OBD-II compliant" or "OBD-II certified".

5. Another way is to ask at the service center or at some online automobile community.

The main function of the diagnostic socket (in OBD-II it is called a - Diagnostic Link Connector, DLC) is to provide the connection of the diagnostic scanner with control units that are compatible with OBD-II. DLC connector must meet the SAE J1962 standards.

According to these standards, the DLC connector position is in the center of the car. It should be within 16 inches of the steering wheel. The manufacturer can locate the DTL in one of the eight locations defined by EPA. Each pin of the connector has a different purpose. See also the question Does my car support OBD-II standard?

OBD-II supports SAE J2012 standard which comprises the corresponding trouble codes - Diagnostic trouble codes (DTC’s). The OBD-II codes has united format consisting of a Latin letter and 4 digits (sometimes letters instead).

These codes are used by some manufacturers to identify vehicle problems.

The codes are divided into two groups – generic and extended codes. Generic ones are strictly standardized and their decoding is always the same for all the OBD-II cars, but vehicle manufacturers also may use manufacturer specific DTC codes that are different from the Generic codes – extended codes. Foreign vehicles may also use DTC codes different from the generic DTC codes. It's important to remember that codes depend on the cars construction, model and manufacturer.

Try the following:

1. turn off the WiFi connection
2. turn off / turn on Bluetooth connection
3. unplug / plug in the adapter
4. try to connect the App, if problems remains, do following:
5. change settings of "BT mode" (Menu-Configuration-Connection-BT mode) After you changed BT mode it is important to follow steps 2-4 again.

If these steps do not help, please enable Debug logging option (Menu-Configuration-Logging), try to connect to the adapter and send the Log-file from the Logging page with your comments about the error details.

InCarDoc for Android is available for all Android devices with version of Android 2.2 or newer,

InCarDoc PRO requires Android 2.2 or newer. You also need to have Bluetooth in your phone.

InCarDoc for iPhone requires iOS 5.0 and newer: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch, iPad (application is optimized for the iPhone 5)

For the data accuracy, we recommend that you avoid simultaneous running multiple programs to read OBD. The driver should insure that there are no other active applications connected to the OBD.

Application reads dynamic and stored parameters of the ECU-compliant (engine control unit) in the vehicles that supports OBD-II standard. Multiple ECU data reading are also available.

See page Features - A comparative list of all supported parameters and features.

To set up theapp localization, go to Configuration >> Localization. Choose one of 2 options "Units":

1. Metric (kilometers, Celsius, ...)
2. Imperial (miles, Fahrenheit, ...)

After that, please, don’t forget to reconnect the adapter. Unit changes become operational after reconnecting ONLY!

1. Economy fuel - instantaneous flow rate (for "single" current values) measured in liters per 100 km (or gallons per 100 miles).
2. Economy fuel avg - the average consumption for the whole trip (up to current moment), measured in liters per 100 km (or gallons per 100 miles).
3. Economy distance - instantaneous flow rate (for "single" current values) measured in km per 1 liter (or miles per gallon).
4. Economy distance avg - average consumption for the whole trip (up to current moment) is measured in km per 1 liter (or miles per gallon).

For the calculation of all types of fuel consumption MAF or MAP sensors should be available in the car (if only MAP sensor is available one should specify Engine Displacement in the Settings menu). The data indication may delay a little and start after car started moving (speed > 5 km/h, the distance > 50m). For mare details, please, visit incardoc.com

At the moment the log information on a smartphone is displayed in form of "preview", and as the zooming is not available only average number of points are displayed, that’s why the "peaks" can be cut. For a detailed analysis of records the tracks upload to the server is expected. It will provide additional tool charts analyzing and processing. This functionality being tested at the moment.

Volumetric efficiency is used in the program for calculation of the fuel economy based on manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP) if the direct data of the mass air flow (MAF) is not available.

The default is value is 80. If the car supports both MAP and MAF, then the "Volumetric efficiency" can be viewed as a measurement parameter (will be displayed in the list of Dynamic Parameters).

Read more about the Volumetric efficiency.

Solution: You should clear errors at the full power supplied, but with the engine OFF.

Currently InCarDoc application supports PID 01, 02, 03, 04.07, 09 (partially). To support other PIDs we need more information, and if you own such information, we will be glad if you share it with us.

The Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC) are collected at the Electronic control unit of the car (ECU) when any car system error appears, they serve to understand the reason of the errors and solve them.

For error detection and more information about the error, use the link www.obd-codes.com and incardoc.com

For parameters reading and recording, as well as mapping and logging, we need access to the one folder - Files, the application does not use your Media / Photo (this information Google Play brings together under one section).

Access to Localization is needed to determine the speed by GPS.

The access to the Device & App History (InCarDoc PRO version) is required to display application data above the other screens when the application runs in the background.

In accordance with the OBD-II only Check Engine errors are displayed and reset, i.e. engine and transmission errors. To clear errors one should do it with the engine stopped, but the power switched on.

No, as the ELM adapter (ELM 327 Bluetooth adapter) operates in simplex mode, that is, only to read and receive data. To make changes to the on-board system of car you should use professional equipment.

Head-up Display – the display on the windshield - Head-Up Display or HUD is a system that displays information about the car on the windshield, without limiting vision of the driver.

To activate the HUD display, go to the Dynamic Parameters - select the top tab Widgets - Create widget LED indicator, select the parameter you want to display.

LED indicator displays car parameters in digital view, if you tab ones more on the activated LED indicator, HUD view will be activated. You can leave the mobile device on the dashboard near the windshield. In the result of mirror view, you can conveniently see the data on the windshield without distracting form driving a car (any digital commands are displayed).

The Timeout value means the interval between polling the data. It works as "not less than". By default, these data are read when ready, if you do not need to read the data very often this value can be increased. It makes sense to put only the values exceeding the "response time" that is displayed while reading.

To create an account at the web server do following:

At the mobile app InCarDoc PRO Menu > Configuration > Account, input Login and Password for your account and click Register.

You need to create account for sending OBD Records to the server InCarDoc and see detailed information about your car performance at your Personal account.

Also, you can register here at the website, go Personal account > Registration, fill in the fields and click Register.

For files uploading do the following when your mobile device is connected to the Internet:

• create account with Registration option in the application (Menu > Configuration > Account) or with website option incardoc.com > Registration
• set your Login and Password in Account (Menu > Configuration > Account) 
• upload your traces to server: open list of recorded traces at OBD Records page, long click on item, select "Send to service" in popup menu
• visit  incardoc.com and login at Personal account page to view the traces.